Northern Ireland
Low income by family type
Key points
- Over the period 2003/04 to 2005/06, around half of all lone parents in Northern Ireland (equivalent to around 25,000 lone parents) were living in low income households.
- Over the same period, the comparable rates for other working-age adults were around 20% of each of working-age single adults without dependent children, working-age couples with dependent children and pensioners and 10% of working-age couples without dependent children.
Graph 1: By family type
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Definitions and data sources
The graph shows the risks of being in low income for people in different family types. Note that a couple (and therefore both of this adults) is classified as a pensioner couple if either of the adults is of pensionable age.
The data source is Households Below Average Income, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs and the low income threshold is the same as that used elsewhere, namely 60% of contemporary median household income. All data is equivalised (adjusted) to account for differences in household size and composition. The self-employed are included in the statistics. Note that in 2007 DWP made some technical changes to how it adjusted household income for household composition (including retrospective changes) and, as a result, the data is slightly different than previously published figures. The averaging over three-year periods has been done to improve statistical reliability.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. The FRS is a well-established annual government survey designed to be representative of the population as a whole and the Northern Ireland sample has been boosted to improve sample sizes. However, the Northern Irish sample is a recent addition to the survey and is yet to be fully quality assured by the Department of Work and Pensions.